Monday, June 8, 2009

This is the 1st Quarter 2009 edition of our ongoing hedge fund portfolio tracking series. Before reading this update, make sure you check out the Hedge Fund 13F filings series preface.

Next up on our series is Galleon Group. Galleon was founded by Raj Rajaratnam in 1997 and currently manages in excess of $7 billion. Raj previously worked for Needham & Company and when he left was responsible for a compounded rate of return of 37% over 4 years while overseeing $250 million. Raj received a Bsc in Engineering and then an MBA in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania. Galleon Group's Buccaneer fund was up 13.39% as of late February 2009. Additionally, their Diversified fund was up 9.87% through the same time period, as noted in our January & February hedge fund performances (March '09 numbers here). We'll be posting up more recent metrics here soon.

Taken from their website, the Galleon Group “manages a series of funds that specialize in the technology and healthcare industries. Currently The Galleon Group manages five different long/short equity funds: Technology, Healthcare, New Media (Internet), Communications and Life Sciences. Galleon’s philosophy and approach differs from that of other hedge funds in the fundamental belief that it is possible to deliver superior returns to our investors without employing leverage. Combine strong fundamental investment analysis with superior trading capability Galleon places a strong emphasis on both fundamental investment analysis and trading. This enables us to identify companies with superior long-term growth prospects while maintaining the flexibility to profit from short-term market fluctuations.”

We find it ironic that their previous description above says they think they can deliver returns without leverage, yet their portfolio is littered with options positions (which is technically leverage). But, oh well, they have a solid track record nonetheless. Raj's success has also recently landed him on Forbes' billionaire list. His firm's solid track record is very evident as they managed to land 2 of their funds on Barron's top 100 hedge funds rankings list. They were one of the few hedge fund firms who managed to do so, and they are definitely in good company as John Paulson's Paulson & Co was one of the others to have multiple funds on the list. (Barron's tracks on a rolling 3 year annualized return basis).

The following were Galleon's long equity, note, and options holdings as of March 31st, 2009 as filed with the SEC. We have not detailed the changes to every single position in this update, but we have covered all the major moves. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted.

As we've grown accustomed to seeing in our past Galleon portfolio snapshots, they still employ numerous options positions in their portfolio. Even though their SPY position is hedged, it has obviously been a big contributor to Galleon's solid performance thus far this year.

We also noted their large position in Wyeth (WYE) in what seems to be a massive trend in hedge fund land. Nearly all the funds we cover have had a position in WYE as they game the merger arbitrage/event-driven trade. Additionally, Raj's firm has a gold position via GLD, just like a ton of other hedge funds out there. Even though it is a smaller stake at only 1.2% of their portfolio, it is yet another hedge fund to add to the gold trade list. The other notable activity we saw was their bearish stance on semiconductors and chips. They have puts on the semiconductors index, Broadcom, and Intel. Lastly, while they sold out completely of various positions (listed above), they were all smaller positions relative to the overall portfolio, typically under 1% each.

This is the 1st Quarter 2009 edition of our ongoing hedge fund portfolio tracking series. Before reading this update, make sure you check out the Hedge Fund 13F filings series preface.

Next up on our series is Galleon Group. Galleon was founded by Raj Rajaratnam in 1997 and currently manages in excess of $7 billion. Raj previously worked for Needham & Company and when he left was responsible for a compounded rate of return of 37% over 4 years while overseeing $250 million. Raj received a Bsc in Engineering and then an MBA in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania. Galleon Group's Buccaneer fund was up 13.39% as of late February 2009. Additionally, their Diversified fund was up 9.87% through the same time period, as noted in our January & February hedge fund performances (March '09 numbers here). We'll be posting up more recent metrics here soon.

Taken from their website, the Galleon Group “manages a series of funds that specialize in the technology and healthcare industries. Currently The Galleon Group manages five different long/short equity funds: Technology, Healthcare, New Media (Internet), Communications and Life Sciences. Galleon’s philosophy and approach differs from that of other hedge funds in the fundamental belief that it is possible to deliver superior returns to our investors without employing leverage. Combine strong fundamental investment analysis with superior trading capability Galleon places a strong emphasis on both fundamental investment analysis and trading. This enables us to identify companies with superior long-term growth prospects while maintaining the flexibility to profit from short-term market fluctuations.”

We find it ironic that their previous description above says they think they can deliver returns without leverage, yet their portfolio is littered with options positions (which is technically leverage). But, oh well, they have a solid track record nonetheless. Raj's success has also recently landed him on Forbes' billionaire list. His firm's solid track record is very evident as they managed to land 2 of their funds on Barron's top 100 hedge funds rankings list. They were one of the few hedge fund firms who managed to do so, and they are definitely in good company as John Paulson's Paulson & Co was one of the others to have multiple funds on the list. (Barron's tracks on a rolling 3 year annualized return basis).

The following were Galleon's long equity, note, and options holdings as of March 31st, 2009 as filed with the SEC. We have not detailed the changes to every single position in this update, but we have covered all the major moves. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted.

As we've grown accustomed to seeing in our past Galleon portfolio snapshots, they still employ numerous options positions in their portfolio. Even though their SPY position is hedged, it has obviously been a big contributor to Galleon's solid performance thus far this year.

We also noted their large position in Wyeth (WYE) in what seems to be a massive trend in hedge fund land. Nearly all the funds we cover have had a position in WYE as they game the merger arbitrage/event-driven trade. Additionally, Raj's firm has a gold position via GLD, just like a ton of other hedge funds out there. Even though it is a smaller stake at only 1.2% of their portfolio, it is yet another hedge fund to add to the gold trade list. The other notable activity we saw was their bearish stance on semiconductors and chips. They have puts on the semiconductors index, Broadcom, and Intel. Lastly, while they sold out completely of various positions (listed above), they were all smaller positions relative to the overall portfolio, typically under 1% each.

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